In a remote house in the small, prairie hamlet of Hairy Hill, Alberta, lives a young girl named Ethel with her three younger siblings. She carries the burden of being a caregiver while the children endure a dysfunctional relationship with their mother, who cryptically turns into a bird and flies away. Ethel is then faced with supporting their livelihood independently.
Director Daniel Gies co-wrote “Return to Hairy Hill” with Emily Paige, with whom he also co-founded the Montreal studio ED movies. The short film is based on the true story of a woman named Marie-Anne Ethel Garnier, Gies’ grandmother, who was born in Hairy Hill in 1940.
Alien paper figures, rendered in black and white, traverse a dreamlike landscape at the foot of a mountain range as winter approaches.
“Paper was always a key element used throughout the story to convey the transience and fragility of the human characters that contrasts with the organic, painterly animals and environments,” says the studio. Gies and Paige achieved the analog effect by using three-dimensional computer graphics to give the impression of stop-motion puppets.
The studio describes the project as “a haunting and deeply personal tribute to family folklore,” based on stories of what it’s like to live in remote and often harsh environments. As Ethel watches her siblings transform into woodland creatures, she must carefully consider whether to join them in her own metamorphosis or defy fate and start a whole new life.
Real paper dolls served as models for the evocative characters, and the effects of light and shadow emphasize the charged relationship between the known and the unknown. The animation spans a variety of styles and includes three-dimensional painterly forests, sculptural details and classical, two-dimensional techniques.
Check out ED movies‘ website for a behind-the-scenes look at the process and follow the studio Vimeo.
